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Artist News Legal
Judge dismisses rapper’s penis cut defamation lawsuit
By Andy Malt | Published on Thursday 16 February 2017
A judge has dismissed a case brought by Wu-Tang Clan affiliated rapper Andre Roxx against TMZ and various other media outlets, over a mistaken report that he cut off his own penis in 2014.
As previously reported, in June 2014 another Wu-Tang associate Andre Johnson, aka Christ Bearer, was found injured having jumped off a balcony after cutting off his penis. In TMZ’s initial report, it mistakenly reported that Roxx, real name Marques Johnson, had been the rapper involved in the incident. The error – seemingly caused by the overlap between Roxx’s stage name and real name with Christ Bearer’s real name – was corrected, but by then the news had already spread around the internet.
Roxx was actually in prison at the time, and was apparently put into protective custody after “other inmates began threatening, harassing and attacking him” over the story, despite him clearly not being the rapper in question.
Christ Bearer has subsequently spoken candidly about the incident, saying that he had been on a cocktail of drugs at the time and had not been sleeping. Despite the severed section of his penis not being re-attached, he has said that he sees it as a positive outcome, telling New York Daily News shortly afterwards: “I definitely believe sex is for mortals, and I am god. So this is a blessing, not a curse”.
None of this placated Roxx, who launched legal action against TMZ last year, claiming libel, defamation and invasion of privacy. He also added other media outlets, including CBS Interactive, Viacom and iHeartMedia, for spreading the story.
Almost a year later, a judge dismissed the case this week, saying that Roxx had waited too long to sue. He also said in his judgement that the specific rule under which Roxx was making his claims would not apply, even if the case had been filed sooner.
